


Stars in Dystopia

by Klaudie



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Action, Adventure, Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Angels, Angst, Demons, Drama, Dystopia, Dystopian, Fae & Fairies, Fairies, Family, Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Mystery, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Supernatural - Freeform, Suspense, Tragedy, fey, i'll probably add tags as i go along, myth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-10-01
Packaged: 2019-01-20 12:19:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12432705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klaudie/pseuds/Klaudie
Summary: After the Disappearance, the survivors founded Sastra, a refugee camp. Years later, when they find a girl named Elizabeta dying of an attack in a forest and rescue her, murders start happening, and Eliza must help them find the culprit, lest she gets blamed for them herself. As she discovers darker things about reality itself in the process that change the perspective on everything, the world is set on its top, and things get dangerously, precariously, severely complicated- fast. When the lives of her friends and allies are endangered, her morals tested and her boundaries pushed, the identity of the real enemy becomes unclear, and Eliza becomes unsure of who she's fighting for and why she's even fighting in the first place. Lines are crossed and friends are betrayed, and everything is at risk in the fray. And as people say, all is fair in love and war.





	1. Part 1: Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. So this has been a fairly long project in the making. This was loosely inspired by the book series The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare. I say loosely inspired meaning that reading those books made me want to write a dystopian fanfiction/murder mystery, but as I finally got around to outlining the plot at the beginning of the summer, the plot quickly evolved into something a lot different from that, to the point where the original idea I had for this has almost nothing to do with the final outlines of the plot. But yeah. I've been working on the backstory and the general plot of this for around 3-ish months now, so I hope that it turns out well. This is an au. It takes place in a whole different universe, and the characters here are not countries, they are human. (Well, most of them.) This is my first story that will be more than just two or three chapters, so I'm praying that this goes ok. *sighs* Oh well. Here we go. I hope you like this!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia. I am just a broke student. Please don't sue me. Also, there will be a crap-load of fighting later, as well as murder, swearing, blood, gore, death (lol what did you expect this is me after all), and general things of the sort. If you are squeamish about such things, I really, really, really wouldn't recommend reading this.

**Stars in Dystopia**

**Part 1: Prologue**

* * *

  _"O see ye not that narrow road,_

_So thick beset with thorns and briers?_

_That is the path of righteousness,_

_Tho after it but few enquires."_

_"And see not that braid braid road,_

_That lies across that lily leven?_

_That is the path to wickedness,_

_Tho some call it the road to heaven."_

\- Excerpt from "Thomas the Rhymer"

* * *

 The woman dressed in white took a deep breath as she strolled through the grassy field. Green grass poked at her bare feet as she stepped through the soft dirt and ticked her toes. She breathed out a breathy laugh as she stepped in a puddle of mud; it had recently rained here and it was going to rain again soon.

Glancing up at the clouds, she shaded her eyes with her hand. There was no sun here, only cloudy sky, filled with black storm clouds gathering ominously. Her eyes glittering, she reached her other hand out as to touch the clouds. The wind lightly brushed over her arms as she reached out, pricking at the hairs at the back of her neck. The winds were stirring. She could sense his presence here, and she smiled peacefully, retracting her hand and clutching it tightly to her chest. She was relieved to see that he had come, she had been waiting for him.

Turning around calmly, her glassy eyes the color of milk met his inky-black ones. He frowned at her, his hair tussled. He clearly wasn't pleased with being here, she could tell by his fidgeting. His feet tapped impatiently against the ground, and she stifled a laugh. He still had that same impatiently dark aura that surrounded him as he moved. He hadn't changed one bit since he had fallen.

"You know," She started, her voice as smooth as glossy silk, "I never thought that you'd willingly come if I called, of your own accord. I'm pleasantly surprised."

He matched her peacefully sleepy grin with a twisted scowl. "Well, I'd never turn down a call from you, my blessed lady." He matched the last few words with hateful sarcasm. Ignoring this, the woman smiled brighter at him.

"Little sheepherder," she said affectionately, "I can tell that you're plotting something. Do you honestly think that I, of all people, wouldn't be able to tell?"

He looked her dead in the eyes. "I could say the same of you."

She ran her fingers through her long hair, starting to braid a small twist in it. "I certainly can't deny that." She gave him a cheerful look that had once stirred so much loving emotion in him, but now stirred absolutely nothing. He chuckled, but it was a chuckle lacking laughter and instead substituted it with darkness. It was full of poison and hate.

"Dark forces are stirring," He began, "and they will claim their rightful place. There is nothing that you can do to stop it, darling." His voice held a sharp edge and false warmth.

"Maybe I can't stop it," She concluded, "but as long as they exist, they can stop you, and your forces will never win." His mocking grin abruptly vanished and was replaced by a low growl. He looked up at her furiously. "It's your own fault for not taking them with you. You could have brought them to your side, tamed them. Instead, you all abandoned them and left me to raise them. It's hardly my fault if your mistakes are your undoing. I did ask you and your friends if you did want custody, after all."

He snarled at her. "We aren't going to be giving up anytime soon, bitch." He whirled around and dissolved into mist. She stared at the spot where he had once stood, her former lover, and suddenly laughed, hard, as it started to rain. Chuckling happily, she wiped tears off her eyes as he stared back and grinned at the spot where he once stood.

"And I wouldn't have it any other way."


	2. Part 1: Chapter 1: Chased

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter: Introductions! Some of the main characters are introduced. (One in particular.) Blood, slight gore, fuckin' weird dreams, occasional name-calling done courtesy of one special little snowflake character... (just read it lol)

**Stars in Dystopia**

**Part 1: Chapter 1**

* * *

  **Chased**

* * *

_"And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt,_

_and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth,_

_nor any grass growth therein."_

\- Deuteronomy 29:23

* * *

Blood gushed from the various wounds criss-crossing Elizabeta Héderváry's body as she ran, her left hand clutching her side in a desperate attempt to clot the bleeding. Tears stung the back of her eyes as she jumped over obstacles, dodged trees, and ran on, each thump sounding as her feet hit the ground, one after the other, like a countdown to her death. She tried to run as silently as she could, but her boots were covered in pitch, there were puddles everywhere, and wherever she stepped she was met with a squeaking squelch as her boots sunk into the muddy trenches and she pulled them out.

As Elizabeta ran, her boot got stuck in a particularly deep hole, and she pulled at it for a minute, shaking in exhaustion. She finally extracted her foot, but her boot had gotten stuck in the puddle, so she had no choice but to run on without it. Blinking furiously as she turned and ran again, she scrubbed at her eyes with her other hand as she ran, leaving her boot behind. She would not cry. She could not cry. She needed to be strong.

She turned right, then left, then left, then right again, before being faced with a small clearing. Looking around frantically, she spun around, looking for her chaser. When she realized that her attacker was nowhere to be found, she slowed her pace to a slow jog, still nervously looking around her for any sign of them and praying that they had given up chase. But they wouldn't give up this easily... right? She heard footsteps behind her, and spun around, only to be met with silence and the steady trickle of water coming from somewhere. There was no one to be seen. "Breathe, Eliza, breathe," She murmured the mantra to herself, trying to calm herself down. "Maybe they've given up chase..." She tried to reassure herself, but her heart beat wildly, and she sped up her pace, just in case.

A bird chirped from somewhere, and Eliza felt a sharp stab of anger at it. How dare it be so calm. How dare it be so happy. How dare it act like nothing was wrong. She shook her frustrated thoughts away as she clutched at the deep gash in her side that was still bleeding. Tears pricked at the back of her eyes as a jolt of pain was shot through her, but she blinked them away again, refusing to cry. She wouldn't give her attacker the satisfaction. Trudging forward, she gripped her dagger with her right hand tightly, hidden by her blood-stained cloak. If her attacker came back, she'd stab them, without a second thought... footsteps became apparent behind her as she spun around again, only to be met with nothing but the blade that had been impaled through her stomach.

Eliza looked down at the sword that had gone straight through her thin armor in shock, and her dagger clattered to the ground. She sunk to her knees, her hands reaching for the blade as she felt her attacker twist it around in her gut. Shaking, she glanced behind her, numerous thoughts going through her mind. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she looked at the completely covered face of her attacker, who was shaking.

"W-why..." She choked out, blood dripping from her lips. It boiled up in the back of her throat as her attacker slowly dragged the blade upwards, towards her heart. She shook with pain as she stared back at the trembling face of her attacker. "W-why..." They only stared back silently at Eliza, gripping the blade tighter. She could faintly hear her breath, it was choppy and uneven, choked up. She fell further forward, leaning on a nearby tree for support. Her attacker didn't respond, but they let her fall forward on the tree, and twisted the blade some more. Her vision went spotty, and everything seemed to flicker for a second. There was a shout behind her as her vision totally went black, and she could faintly feel her attacker quickly extracting the blade and running off as someone else knelt by her, but her vision had already completely went black.

* * *

Eliza was standing on a grassy plain, looking around in confusion. It was quiet here, and peaceful, and when her hand instinctively went to her gut, where she was previously wounded, there was no injury there. She looked around, her hands curled together in confusion. It was so green and pretty here, the sky faintly peaked out inbetween various grey storm clouds, and there were a few large willow trees dotting the landscape.

Her eyes came to rest on a figure clearly dressed in white, facing away from her, and her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. The figure clearly meant no harm, she could sense that from her, however, she seemed to be shrouded in something so that Eliza couldn't make out her appearance other than that. From a distance, Eliza could somehow tell that the woman was smiling, even though she was turned away from Eliza. She stepped forward, trying to make out the woman's face, but voices swam in her head, blocking everything else out and returning her to the darkness before she had the opportunity to do so.

"Is she going to wake up soon?" The feminine voice sounded calm, if only slightly nervous. Eliza wasn't there, but she assumed that the slight tapping noise in the background was the girl tapping her feet.

"I don't know, Lili. She was injured pretty badly. Granted, the little bitch has been out for almost a week now, but when she was found, she was already bleeding out from dozens of wounds, scratches, bites, and general injuries, and the sword to the gut certainly didn't help anything. Honestly, it's a damn near miracle that she even survived, what with all of her wounds." The second voice sounded almost exasperated, but the exasperation was heavily lined with exhaustion. Eliza felt a pang of guilt shoot through her. Were they talking about her?

"Don't call her a bitch, Lovina, that's not nice." The first voice- Lili, the second voice had called her. And Lili had called the second voice Lovina. Were those their names? "Besides," Lili started, you don't know her. How are you supposed to know that she's a bitch? For all you know she could be a perfectly nice girl."

Someone grunted, and Elizabeta assumed that that was Lovina. "Lili, darling, when I call someone a bitch, I'm not always calling them a bitch to insult them." Eliza felt a flare of anger boil inside her. "In this case," Lovina concluded, "I'm calling her a bitch as a testament to the fact that she's been a feisty little bitch, fighting through her various injuries. She's been healing faster than a normal person would." Lili only hm-hmmed, humming to herself.

"Sure you are." Lili's voice was lined with skeptical emotion, but her humming was light-hearted. They both were silent for a minute, and Eliza's anger started to cool down slightly. One of them sighed, and a voice spoke up, one that Eliza couldn't determine the owner of.

"Well, I just hope that she wakes up soon."

.  .  .

With a pained gasp, Elizabeta shot awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Well, there was Chapter 1 for you. Sorry for the delay on it, I was really busy with other things that I had to take care of. So, I mentioned this in the last chapter, but this is a human AU with lots of magic, mythology, stuff of the sort. I want to further clarify that all of the nations that I include here are all going to be humans, not nations, and although I might have a couple of them be able to wield magic, etc., they are still human. As for clarification on names, Elizabeta is Hungary, Lili is Liechtenstein, and Lovina is Nyo! Italy. Also, I will probably in the future refer to Elizabeta as Eliza or Liza from time to time. If this causes any confusion, please let me know, and I will revert to just calling her Elizabeta.
> 
> Please, please, please leave a comment/review/whatever you like. I really don't like asking for reviews, but they tell me what you like about this and what you want to see more of, and they tell me about the interest that you carry in this story. How often I update this and my motivation for updating this will heavily depend on this, especially because school starts in a few days for me and I already know that I will be having huge homework loads and stuff to do. Further on that note, because school is starting soon, I will probably have issues getting these chapters out quickly. I apologize in advance! But seriously, I love reading reviews and they really are basically my motivation to write, so please leave a review, and Hima bless the reviewers!
> 
> I think that's all I wanted to address... hmm... *thinks thoughtfully* Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you liked it! Ciao!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the bible. I shall repeat myself, I do not own the bible, nor do I own Deuteronomy 29:23. I am a teenage student, for Christ's sakes. In no way in hell would I own the rights to the bible. The version of Deuteronomy 29:23 that I used was part of the King James Version, which I can confidently say is in the public domain.
> 
> Next Chapter: Elizabeta wakes up and has a rather interesting discussion regarding what happened.


	3. Part 1: Chapter 2: Learning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter: Eliza wakes up and has an interesting discussion with a certain green-eyed girl named Lili. Sarcasm, mild annoyance, vague explanations here and there, name-dropping for later characters... all aboard S.S. Plot.

**Stars in Dystopia**

**Part 1: Chapter 2**

* * *

**Learning**

* * *

There was a startled yelp as Elizabeta shot awake. Panting, she raised her shaking hands to her face, staring at them breathlessly. She clenched and unclenched her fists, turning them over. Raising them closer to her face, she sat up, staring at them. They were clean of her blood.

Thank god.

There was some shifting around as someone sat up, smoothed their skirt, and muttered that they were going to go and report this development to the Council. Shaking, Eliza curled in on herself, clutching her arms. Noticing her apparel, she realized that she was wearing navy-colored leggings and a loose-fitting black t-shirt dress over them. Not her own clothes, which were probably ruined with her own sweat, blood, and injuries. She steadied her breathing, and looked up at the person still sitting beside her.

From her chair, the girl peered down at Elizabeta. She had short, cropped blonde hair with a dark cerulean ribbon tied into a limp bow on the left side of her head. Her wide emerald-green eyes blinked at Eliza nervously, and it did not escape her that the girl's eyes appeared to lack pupils. She was wearing an old-fashioned rogue-colored dress, and her hands were clasped together nervously. Leaning on the wall by the slightly propped-open door stood a stoic young man, who looked a bit like the girl, with emerald-green eyes and chin-length blond hair, but he wore a dark green trench coat matching his eyes, brown military pants, and was polishing an old rifle. He glanced up at her for a few seconds before loosing interest and glancing back down at his work. Eliza looked back to the girl, who quietly spoke.

"How are you feeling?"

"Mediocre. Who are you guys? What's going on?" Eliza responded, rubbing her wrists restlessly. "Where am I?

The green-eyed girl looked back at her. "First of all, my name is Lili Vogel, and I like to think of the man over there as my adoptive older brother, Vasch Zwingli."

Eliza looked Lili up and down with the new realization that she was one of the people that she had heard right before she woke up. "I heard you and someone else talking before I woke up," she murmured. "Lovina, I think her name was?"

Vasch looked up from his work again curiously to give Elizabeta a weird stare before resuming his polishing. Lili's cheeks pinkened and her hands shook as she stared at Eliza and spoke. "You heard that conversation?" Her voice came out as something between an embarrassed squeak and an apologetic tone. "I'm very, very sorry for Lovina's behavior and the fact that she called you a bitch. She acts like that towards everyone."

"I could have guessed," Eliza muttered sarcastically, under her breath, and sighed. "Going back to my original questions, what's going on and where am I?" Lili's tone changed as she spoke again.

"You're at Sastra, which is a bit of a refugee camp for people who survived the Disappearance. As for what's going on..." She glanced back up at Vasch shakily, before looking back to Elizabeta. "One of our guards, Gilbert Beilschmidt, found you being attacked in the forest. He scared your attacker off and brought you back to our camp, where you were mostly healed. You were pretty badly injured. To be honest, for awhile there, we weren't sure you were going to make it."

"I also could have guessed that last bit from your previous conversation," Eliza sighed again. Lili's cheeks brightened. "I'm sorry!"

"No, it's fine." Eliza rubbed her eyes and Lili bit at her lip.

"What's your name?"

"Elizabeta. Elizabeta Héderváry. You can call me Eliza, though." The words rolled off her tongue, and they felt right, unlike some of the other false thoughts swimming through her mind.

"Alright, Eliza," Lili glanced back up at her. "Do you remember what happened before you were attacked? What happened to you?"

Eliza thought for a moment, uneasily, before responding, her voice soft. "I don't really know. I basically just woke up somewhere in the forest, leaning against a tree, and wandered around like a nomad for a bit, before I heard footsteps behind me and someone unsheathing a sword." She bit her tongue, hissing in startled pain before she spoke again.

"I dodged the first swipe, and started running. I didn't know where I was going. I just needed to get away from them. I had run for awhile, and it had turned into this sick sort of cycle, no, game, where my attacker would catch up, and inflict some kind of damage, and I'd speed up, running away quicker. Eventually, I reached a clearing, and I thought that I had lost them. But I apparently was wrong, and they stabbed me in the gut and twisted the blade upwards. Eliza's words were bitter as she reached the end of her tale. "Before that, I remember nothing." Her words hung in the air like a soggy, wet blanket that darkened the mood.

Lili thought for a minute, rubbing her hands together and tapping her foot before she spoke again. "Having issues remembering after you wake up isn't really... rare... here." She spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully. "We have a few residents who had mild amnesia after they woke up. They vaguely remembered some things, but nothing big. The people who forgot things were the people who were asleep the longest, so, judging from how long you must have been asleep, I guess it's natural for you not to remember anything before this."

Eliza stared at Lili curiously. "What happened here? Is waking up in a forest with memory issues common here or something? What do you mean that it's natural for me to have forgotten?" Lili stifled a shaky laugh.

"I should probably explain the history of this place, right? The name of this land as a whole is Gaia. Years ago, the Disappearance happened. According to those of us who don't have any issues with their memory, people started randomly disappearing, and then the remaining residents of Gaia just... collectively fell asleep. Some of the people who don't have issues remembering were able to put together that everyone fell asleep for about a year or two before the first people woke up. We refer to these people as the Original Twelve, because they were the first people who woke up and they were the people who established Sastra. Eventually, others started waking up and they were either found or they found their way to Sastra." Lili looked at Eliza uneasily.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Eliza questioned nervously, "I can tell that there's something else going on."

Lili took a deep breath before continuing. "Not many people "escaped" the Disappearance. A few years back, people stopped showing up, and eventually our magic-users did a test and determined that there wasn't any more survivors. But then, about a week ago, years later, Gil happened upon you, and not only you, but someone else who was attacking you, trying to kill you. That's two people at the same time, one of which was violent and escaped." Lili absently tucked a lock of hair that had fallen into her face behind her ear restlessly.

"The total timespan during which people woke up and came to Sastra was about a year. Months later, like I said earlier, our magic-users did a test and determined that there were no more survivors left in Gaia. The total survivor count amounted to about thirty-ish, if I remember correctly. That was a few years ago. In all that time, we had not found another survivor, let alone a violent one. Other than the occasional relatively harmless fight from time to time between a few residents here, we have never had any issue with violence at Sastra, let alone attempted homicide."

Her voice hissed frustratedly at the last few words as eyes darted around the room uncomfortably. "Do you understand?"

Elizabeta sat in silence for a full minute, trying to grasp what Lili had just said, before she replied. "Yeah. Mostly."

Lili breathed a sigh of relief before starting again. "Something else that you should probably know..."

Vasch interrupted her, pausing his work, his steely green eyes meeting Eliza's own hazel ones. Lili shot him a look of mild annoyance, before waving her hand as a signal for him to continue where she had left off.

"People here most of the time are pretty accepting, but don't be surprised if some resent you." He scanned Eliza up and down as he spoke, boredly, making her feel a little uncomfortable. "Some might see you as some poor soul who ran into misfortune, but others might see you as a harbinger of violence. Like my little sister so eloquently reiterated, we've never had problems like this before, so calling this subject a little controversial would be a major understatement. Don't hold it against the people here who resent you. They're just... scared, for lack of a better term."

"I see." Her voice dripped in mild sarcasm. "And what side are you two on?" Lili started to speak, but Vasch cut her off again.

"We're neutral. Why else would we have been assigned here to keep an eye on you?" Lili nodded in agreement, but not without shooting another look of mild annoyance at her adoptive older brother at being interrupted again. Vasch sent her back an equally annoyed look, and resumed polishing. Lili sighed in defeat and grabbed something off of the nightstand and leaned forward, handing Eliza a mug. She just stared at it.

"... what is this?"

Lili laughed a little, before responding sweetly. "It's a mug of broth. Drink it up."

Raising it to her lips, Elizabeta smelled the liquid. It smelled good, and she quickly took a sip. It tasted as good as it smelled, and she slowly drank it up. Glancing back at the emerald-eyed girl, she raised an eyebrow when she noticed that Lili was looking at her curiously.

"Do you like it?"

Eliza nodded slightly as she drank it. As she finished, Lili spoke again. "It should be good. Lovina's sister, Felicia, made it for you and one of our magic-users, Alice, added a little bit of healing magic in it so that you can fully recover even quicker. And Felicia's cooking is always good as it is, and while Alice's cooking on the other hand is positively atrocious, her magic is splendid, so..." She shrugged elegantly. "You get the idea."

After Eliza set the empty mug down, everything was quiet for a minute, the exception being Vasch's steady polishing, before Lovina returned, throwing the door completely open with a large bang, panting. Glancing quickly at Lili, Vasch, and lastly, Elizabeta, she spoke inbetween heavy breaths.

"Good to see that you've finished up your little discussion. Lili, did you get the information?" Lili nodded in response, and Lovina quickly picked up on it. "Good. Anyway, I reported to the Council that our little Sleeping Beauty was awake. Vasch, they've relieved you of your boring duty of waiting here with your sister, and you can return to whatever you'd normally do at this time in the-" She checked her watch. "-very late afternoon Almost evening, really. All they ask of you is that you don't repeat any of the information shared here to anyone else, they'll take care of distributing it after this meeting. They want to see our little Sleeping Beauty awake and in person, and Lili, you've been given permission to sit in on this Council meeting. Now come on, chop chop, you don't want to be late, do you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For the sake of this story, the only people who will retain their biological sibling relationships are the Germany brothers and the Italy sisters. This is why Lili points to Vasch as someone that she likes to think of being her adoptive older brother. The same thing will happen with America and Canada, Iceland and Norway, etc. They will be considered adoptive siblings in name only, but not biological siblings. One of the reasons for this is because of most sibling pairs in Hetalia not sharing the same last name, and honestly, author-chan doesn't really have the energy right now to dream up a reason for that. But to be honest, a lot of the sibling pairs in Hetalia were kind of adopted by their older siblings... so I guess it kind of fits?
> 
> Gaia, besides being the name of the land where this story takes place, is also the name of the Greek goddess of the Earth. As for the reason why Sastra was called Sastra, according to Google Translate, Latin for hope camp is spem castra, so I compounded the two and got Sastra. I'm sorry if the Latin is wrong, but I do not speak it so, like I said earlier, I went to google translate.
> 
> I made a couple references to Hungary, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein's histories if you didn't pick up on them. Virtual cookies for those of you who picked up on them!
> 
> So, school for me starts in a day. Yayyyy. Notice my enthusiastic sarcasm. (Help me.) I may have my hands tied for awhile because of this, so I apologize if I'm not able to update for awhile. On the brighter side, this chapter is a bit longer than the last one. Forgive me? Please feel free to review, and Hima bless the reviewers! Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you liked it! Ciao!
> 
> Next Chapter: Eliza attends a Council meeting where some verbal blows are delivered, suspicion reigns supreme, and more characters are introduced.


	4. Part 1: Chapter 3: Council

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter: Eliza, Lovina, and Lili attend a Council meeting where things don't go as well as one might have hoped they would. Verbal blows, sarcasm, suspicion, worry, and general mind-wracking pandemonium runs amuck. New characters are introduced.

**Stars in Dystopia**

**Part 1: Chapter 3**

* * *

  **Council**

* * *

 Elizabeta followed after Lili and Lovina, almost tripping over her own feet before catching herself. Lovina barely paid her a second glance, but Lili looked back at Eliza, concerned, before looking back to the girl in front of her.

"You ok?" Eliza spared Lovina a look of surprise, but the girl didn't look back at her.

"I'm fine." There was an uneasy silence that filled the hallway as they walked quickly.

"So, what's your name?" Eliza choked briefly, still startled by the interaction, but covered it up with a cough. "I can't keep calling you Sleeping Beauty, can I?"

She snorted. "Elizabeta. You can call me Eliza if you want to." Lovina nodded to herself, humming under her breath.

"Eliza. Huh. Fits ya." Sighing as she stopped abruptly in front of a big wooden door and whirled around, she fixed Eliza with a "Don't-you-dare-try-anything-funny-or-I-might-have-to-slightly-murder-you" stare. "Stay with Lili."

"I'm sorry?"

"Stay with Lili," Lovina repeated herself. "Stay with her. The council will probably ask Lili to recount what you told her, and then will probably ask you to validate what she said, with a few more questions of their own afterwards. It will be kind of hard to do any of that if you get lost in the sea of asshats, hmm?" Lili choked and her eyebrow twitched.

"Sea of asshats?"

Lovina examined her fingernails. "Yes. Have a problem?" Lili looked like she was about to say something, but bit her lip and decided against it. "No, Lovi."

Lovina's head snapped up and she shot Lili an annoyed stare. "Don't call me that." She fixed her glare back on Eliza, who shifted uneasily.

"Understand?" Eliza found herself nodding faintly. "Understand."

"Great." Sarcasm dripped from Lovina's words as she shoved the door open. "Welcome to the party."

.  .  .

Eliza glanced around the room from her seat.

The room was... chaos.

Complete and utter chaos.

As soon as Lovina had entered the room, she had been accosted by a dark-haired, green-eyed young man and sent Lili and Elizabeta out of the way before she started yelling at him. A girl who looked like a younger and lighter version of her, Lovina's sister, Eliza presumed, had tackled her with a hug pleading with her to stop yelling. On the other side of the room, a blonde-haired girl with pigtails and a blue dress was pointing at a bunch of papers and gesturing angrily, conversing with two nearly-identical girls, one loudly voicing her opinion, and the other quietly nodding. A tall man in a beige trenchcoat was speaking with a tall girl with pale hair, another blonde-haired girl clutching his arm and glaring possessively at him. Another blonde man was standing at the front of the room, his eyes twitching dangerously, glancing at the general pandemonium.

Eliza was at a complete loss for words.

"Not what you were expecting, huh?" Lili peered up at Eliza. "Ya know, when people say 'council', the image that comes to mind is... well..." She gestured around the room. "Not this." Eliza nodded quietly. There were others, too- a group of people yelling at eachother, a silver-haired man poking and prodding at another blonde man, everyone maintaining a certain level of volume that could deafen just about anything thrown at it. Lili chuckled faintly, gesturing to Lovina's capturer.

"That's Felicia, Lovina's little sister. She and Lovi are one of the only pairs of biological siblings at this camp. And that dark-haired, green-eyed man is Antonio. He perpetually annoys Lovi to no bounds, and honestly, can make her more flustered than anyone else here." Her voice slightly rose happily but respectfully. "And those," she spun around, gesturing to the identical girls, who were now speaking alone to eachother, "are our lookalikes, Amelia and Madeline. Before you ask, although they are adopted siblings, they aren't related biologically. And no, we do not know why they look so alike. You can tell them apart mostly by their general demeanors and by their eye colors; Amelia's eyes are this cerulean shade of blue while Maddie's are the oddest, prettiest, shade of violet."

Humming to herself, Eliza nodded for Lili to continue.

Lili pointed to the pigtailed girl, who's attention was now diverted and talking quietly with the twitching blonde-haired man and a violet-eyed, silent girl with a cross clip in her hair. "That's Alice, Ludwig, and Lene. Alice and Ludwig are sort of our unofficial leaders. They know how to... handle people, something that, considering our group of crazies, is definitely necessary. Alice and Lene both utilize magic, although, honestly, some of the thing they can do are just a little..." She paused, searching for the right word. "... questionable. The guy in the trenchcoat conversing with the pale-haired girl and the blondie clutching his arm is Ivan, Katyusha, and Natalya. They're also sort of adopted siblings, although Natalya's obsession with Ivan is also a little worrying. Katyusha knows how to handle them both though..." Lili glanced at Eliza briefly, before looking back to the council members. "most of the time."

Gesturing at an irritated group in the corner, Lili continued enthusiastically. "The dark-haired guy over there conversing with the brown-haired guy with the ponytail is Kiku and Yao, and honestly, they're probably the sanest out of all of us." Eliza glanced worriedly at Lili, who chuckled nervously. "The other guy with them is Toris, and... he's pretty sane too, all things considered. Lastly," she pointed to the blue-eyed, blonde-haired man animatedly conversing and pointing with the silver-haired man, "that's Francis. He's an interesting soul."

"And the silver-haired man?"

Lili glanced back up at Eliza. "Gilbert. He and Ludwig are the other pair of biological siblings that we have here, and he's also the one who rescued you." Elizabeta glanced back at him with renewed interest. "I'll have to thank him." Lili faintly laughed at that. "You do that. You go do that." Eliza frowned at her curiously, but Lili laughed it off and, resting her chin on a bannister, continued her dialogue.

"Anyway, Amelia, Madeline, Alice, Felicia, Ivan, Francis, Kiku, Ludwig, Lovina, Gilbert, Natalya, and Katyusha are what, or who, we refer to as the Original Twelve. They were the first here, and they were the ones who basically founded the camp and were here from the get-go. The other people on the council, Antonio, Lene, Toris, and Yao came here pretty soon afterwards and were deemed "mature" enough to help run the camp. Although, frankly, that "maturity" is fairly questionable, considering some of the subjects of the fights that they get into, and considering some of their antics."

Eliza glanced back at Lili. "How does the system here work?"

Lili met her question with a grin. "We have cabins of sorts. Eight total. Amelia and Natalya run the first one, Madeline and Katyusha run the second one, Alice and Lene run the third, Felicia and Lovina run the fourth, Ivan and Toris the fifth, Francis and Antonio the sixth, Kiku and Yao the seventh, and Ludwig and Gilbert the eighth. Each cabin has three to five people in it including the people who run it, and the people who run them make up the council. Everyone pitches in one way or another and has their own jobs. We also have six guard squads, with Ludwig running the first, Gilbert running the second, Ivan running the third, Amelia running the fourth, Alice running the fifth, and Berwald, who's another one of the people here, runs the sixth."

"Why six guard squads if you never had any problems with outside violence before?"

Lili swallowed before responding morosely. "Before, we normally had two running at a time, mostly to monitor our surroundings and just to be careful, because wild animals do live in the woods, although they've never bothered us before. At the same time, we'd have another two out hunting. One of the purposes of the last two groups used to be tracking down anyone who might not have found their way to camp yet, but those search teams were retired when Alice and Lene did their search and announced that the chances of anyone else being out there were next to zero, and now they just go where they're needed... well..." She glanced nervously at Eliza, who felt a lump grow in her throat.

"And now?"

"Now we have more patrols running than before and a few miscellaneous people who volunteered to try to hunt down your attacker. But after a week, they've produced nothing, and they were hoping that you could produce some sort of hint about who exactly the attacker was." Lili's eyes were sad, regretful, and bitter, and her voice lowered enough so that Eliza had to strain to hear her as she stared at her folded hands in her lap, proper posture resumed.

"Before, Vash simply monitored the weaponry supplies and ran the armory because he had no interest in being a proper guard. But now that the guard is pulling some volunteers out to help scour the woods, he's reluctantly agreed to help out, as well as a few of my other close friends. I'm scared for them. They're probably going to have to pull out soon because they've found no sign of the attacker, but I'm still scared for their safety and fearful that all of our security might be compromised." The girl's shoulders started to shake.

"What if we have to leave? This is our home now, we don't have any other place to go to. Oh, gods... what if..." Lili trailed off, Eliza not being able to capture any more of her words and feed them through her ears.

Eliza put out a hand as if to touch the younger girl's shoulder, to comfort her, but stopped midair, her hand hanging there uselessly as she swallowed, searching for the right words to say.

"I-" Shakingly, she composed herself. "Gods, I'm sorry."

Seeming to remember that she wasn't alone, Lili looked back at Eliza, her eyes looking dull and empty, and her eyes red-rimmed, despite never having shed a tear. Taking a shaky breath, she looked at her feet before looking Eliza in the eye. "No, don't be. I- I forgot my composition. My posture. I'm sorry."

Eliza stared at her uselessly, before diverting her attention to the Ludwig and Alice, who were standing at the front of the room, conversing through nods and whispers.

"Are they-"

Lili glanced up as well, before muttering, "Put your hands over your ears."

"Excuse me?"

The rest of the room was dead to the duo's body language at the front of the room, Alice seemingly encouraging Ludwig to do something.

"Just trust me." Eliza hesitantly followed Lili's motions, cupping her ears with her hands, as Ludwig started to yell, effectively shutting everyone up.

"GOTTVERDAMMT, WILL YOU DUMMKOPFS SHUT UP?! He roared. Everyone fell silent except for Gilbert, who yelled back at his brother.

"Yo, West, you unawesome piece of shit, remove that stick from your butt!" Quiet laughter resonated through the room as Ludwig tossed a glare at his brother that would kill a medium-sized elephant as he hissed annoyed words in German before he diverted his attention towards the rest of the room at Alice's prodding.

"Moving on..." He shot one last glare at his brother "ignoring that distraction, we have other, far more important issues to address." Sighing, Alice poked Ludwig, and he let her take over. Alice glanced at Eliza and Lili.

"As I'm sure you all already know, our little Sleeping Beauty has waken up..." She trailed off, not knowing Elizabeta's name yet, and glanced at Lili, who poked Eliza, letting her know to respond.

"Elizabeta. Elizabeta Héderváry." Eliza surprised herself as she responded. She sounded much more confident than she felt.

"Yes, Elizabeta..." Alice shook her head and continued, sighing, before she looked to Lili. "I assume you got the required information?" Lili nodded, smoothing her skirt as she stood up. Smooth words spilled from her mouth as she spoke confidently, any hesitation, sadness, or hint of previous emotion that she had felt earlier vanished from her expressionless face and posture. She surprised Eliza; Eliza hadn't expected Lili, this seemingly bumbling and impassioned girl, to be this eloquently poised in front of a crowd.

Everyone was silent as Lili recapped what Eliza had told her, some shooting the occasional nervous look towards Alice and Ludwig, who's faces were completely blank, like they'd been completely washed clean of their humanity. As Lili finished speaking, Alice fixed her gaze on Eliza, who shivered slightly. She could tell that Alice meant well, but needed honest answers, reasoning her behavior. There was still something about that stare... Eliza shook her head and met Alice's gaze head on.

"I trust that what Lili says is true?"

Eliza nodded in agreement. "Every word, miss."

Alice's head bobbed in satisfaction. "Please don't call me miss. So you don't have any memory?"

Voices rang loudly inside Eliza's head, overlapping eachother and making her feel suddenly dizzy. Barely retaining her composure and sangfroid, she nodded numbly. "No. None." The voices quietly protested but slowly faded away as Eliza shook her head, hoping that it simply looked as if she was nodding no.

Alice shared a look with Lene, then looking to Ludwig, before peering back at Eliza, but voicing none of her apparent suspicions but clearly thinking that she might've been lying. Her lips pursed, she murmured, almost to herself. "I see." Looking up curiously, her eyes could've bored into Eliza's soul as she slightly shrunk back in response, bowing her head slightly in respect.

Sighing, Alice recomposed herself, obviously aware that everyone was hanging on her words. "Assuming that Lili did as requested and filled you in on some of this camp's past and knowledge surrounding it, do you have any idea as to why you remained in that supposed coma for as long as you did." Pressing on, Alice continued, "Do you have any idea as to why Lene and I might not have been able to detect you when we preformed our test?"

Eliza could feel everyone's gaze on her, especially Alice and Lene's. She struggled to think for a minute, before coming up with what she hoped was a plausible answer. "...Maybe there was something that kept me in that state and prevented you from detecting me." Alice and Lene shared a look of extreme uneasiness, causing Eliza to trail off in thought, before Alice motioned for her to continue. "And why might you think that?" Eliza shrugged weakly before responding frustratedly.

"I have no idea how any of this works, only that I woke up in the middle of nowhere, was attacked, collapsed, ended up here, the basics of the history here that, frankly, don't make much sense, and that you and Lene can work magic. I guess that magic is the only answer that I can come up with, knowing what I know, that this is the work of some sentient, living being with the intention of harm in its mind, that's powerful enough to do what it's done. What else could I come up with knowing what I do know?" Eliza immediately set up after finishing her tirade, hoping and praying that she didn't offend anyone. That was the last thing that she needed.

Surprisingly, Alice and Lene didn't seem mad, only even more uneasy, if that was even humanly possible. Alice opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out, and Lene stood up.

"Permission to speak?" Lene's voice was quiet, but powerful, and held meaning. Ludwig nodded in her direction, and Alice sent her a thank-you stare of thankfulness. Lene turned to face Eliza.

"What my colleague was trying to say, before she became lost for words, was that it would take extremely, incredibly powerful magicks to do that. Almost impossibly amounts, that shouldn't be able to be handled safely by any human being. Now, maybe wielded by a faerie..." her voice trailed off before she shook her head and resumed. "Maybe, a faerie would be able to wield that amount of power, but they wouldn't do that. The fey should be our allies, have no reason to attack us... unless it's a counterpart..." Lene shook her head again. "It wouldn't be possible." Nodding respectfully back to Alice and Ludwig, Ludwig picked up where Lene left off, slightly thrown off by her mention of the fey.

"Thank you for that... useful... reference..." Alice elbowed him sharply, her eyes daring him to call her or Lene crazy. Ludwig cleared his throat, sighed, and turned to Eliza. "You were attacked. What can you tell us about your attacker?"

Elizabeta's mind flickered back to the attack. "Nothing that Lili hasn't already told you." Murmurs of unease arose, but were quickly hushed by Alice's baleful gaze.

"What do you mean by that?"

A flicker of exasperated annoyance shot through Eliza. "Nothing that Lili hasn't already told you," She repeated herself, annoyed. "Look, I woke up in the middle of nowhere, dizzy, bordering on the edge of delirious, completely disorientated, and wandered around for a bit before I could slightly grasp my bearings. Next thing I know, I'm running because someone took a swipe at me, and that one little swipe-and-run turned into a twisted game where my attacker would catch up, take a stab, I'd have to speed up, and so on and so forth until I had thought that I'd lost them, and being completely and totally wrong." Her voice was bitter and frustrated.

Ludwig sighed slightly, the noise quenching the doubting mumbling coming from the rest of the room. "Nothing that you can tell us about the description? Body language? Anything relating or pertaining to said person?"

Trying to rid her voice of the exasperated edge she knew it had, Eliza continued. "No. Nothing. Except..." her mind flashed back to the assassin standing over her, blade in hand, shaking, trembling as they twisted the blade, body language almost hinting that they'd rather be anyplace but there. It was a long shot, but... "They acted like they didn't want to be there."

Voices arose. Ludwig yelled for them to shut up to no avail, and Amelia, from the back of the room, whistled a high pitched, ringing whistle that effectively shut everyone up. Alice nodded in appreciation, and Amelia simply waved at her. No problem.

Alice turned to Eliza, picking up where Ludwig left off. "What do you mean by that?"

"Their body language. It's a bit of a long shot, but when they stabbed me, they almost acted as if they'd've rather been any place but there. Sure, it was obvious that they'd probably killed or tried to kill before, but a lot about they way they moved and their posture suggested that, if given the opportunity, they would have been at whatever place that they'd call home, far, far away from here."

Everyone was silent. Alice turned turned to Ludwig, and sighed. "We're getting nowhere. We aren't going to be able to get anything out of this today. In the meantime, she can stay with one of our cabins."

Loud shouts of protest coming from a few certain individuals suddenly erupted. Before, they had been kept to a ignorable minimum, but now they were very much noticeable. Alice and Ludwig whirled around to yell at the sources of the protests, but they were but off before they had the chance to open their mouth by another piercing whistle coming form Amelia's direction. The girl's face was blank and stony but showed subtle hints of annoyance. She yawned loudly. "Fucking Christ, can y'all shut up?" Amelia's glare transferred from one person to another throughout the room, slowly making its way in a circle. "We have a system, or are we too childish to fucking use it?" A quiet snort came from the other side of the room, and Ivan was put into view, trying to stifle his laughter.

"I find that a somewhat hypocritical statement for you to make, da? Aren't you a big source of noise most of the time?" Amelia opened her mouth to protest, before Alice intervened.

"Do you have something that you want to say, Ivan?" Ivan's eyes flashed dangerously. "Da, Yes I do." He leaned on his pipe. "I question the motives of that- that girl." He spat out of the side of his mouth. "She makes me uneasy. We don't have any verification that she's telling the truth. I think we all saw the expression on her face when she said that she had no memory, and that was the expression of a liar if I've ever seen one. She's a liability, and one that shouldn't be trusted."

"Come on, she isn't that bad-" Lili's voice of protest was cut off by a piercing glance from Ludwig. "Forgive me, Lili, but you are a guest speaker here. You shouldn't speak unless you've been given permission to do so. His tone was gentle, but Lili still shrunk back. "Sorry, sir."

Alice surveyed the crowd, everyone's unease slowly growing. Elizabeta gulped nervously as Alice spoke. "Do we have anyone else that agrees with Ivan's statement?" Everyone glanced around at eachother before Yao, Toris, and Lene stood up. Alice sucked in a breath. "You too, Lene?" Lene quietly nodded.

Toris raised his hand as he spoke, grabbing Alice's attention. "If I might speak, Alice." There was a slight stutter to his words as Ivan threateningly glared at him. "I don't strictly agree with everything that Ivan said, however, I do believe that Elizabeta could be a risk that we need to be careful with."

"My views aren't as extreme as Ivan's, but are more in line with Toris'." Lene spoke calmly. "I do worry about the attacker. We need to remember that Elizabeta was attacked, and her attacker might want to come back and launch another attack on her. I believe that we should shelter her, but keep in mind that she is a harbinger of violence. If we are presented with enough evidence that she is a threat to everyone's safety as well as her own, then we should resort to more extreme measures, but for now, I propose that we simply go the milder route, be careful but don't completely shun her." Alice breathed out a slow sigh, and gestured to Yao.

"And you, Yao?"

Yao simply shrugged. "We should be careful, aru. We don't know what might happen next. She is an issue to be handled carefully, with precision, not to be issued with a slapdash, spur-of-the-moment decision coming out of nowhere but our suspicions. Also, Ivan," Yao turned to face the taller man, "as for facial expressions, the girl is in a stressful situation. She doesn't know any of us to make a very good judgement of our characters. I think cringing is an appropriate reaction to be put in a room with people that you don't really know, who have the authority to decide your fate, right?"

Ludwig faintly nodded. "Thank you Yao." Ivan glowered at the rest of the room. "She still shouldn't be trusted. For all we know, she could've staged the "attack" just to ge-

"Bull-fucking-shit." Ivan was cut off by a very angry, glowering, Lovina. Eliza looked at Lovina, startles, and Alice raised an eyebrow, but after exchanging glances with Ludwig, motioned for her to continue. "I call bullshit on your accusations. For one thing, although we don't have any concrete evidence saying that she isn't a threat, we don't have any concrete evidence that says that she is, either. That makes your suspicions just as unfounded as the rest of ours, and considering that, maybe it's best that we don't here them, you fuckin-" Antonio reached out and covered her mouth with a hand, effectively shutting her up as she tried to free herself from his grip. "That's enough, Lovi."

A sigh came from beside Antonio, and Gilbert looked up, lacking the playfulness that he had earlier. "Look, Ivan, I can confirm that there was an attacker myself. I saw her bleeding out on the ground, and I saw a completely-covered up person running away. This wasn't staged, you dipshit. Look, we're all nervous. But that doesn't mean that you can go around throwing around accusations willy-nilly." Gilbert met Ivan's glare head on as debate broke out around the room. Eliza looked down at her hands, twisting them nervously. People were spitting fire with their words, yelling at eachother. How did it get to be this damn loud?

"THAT IS ENOUGH. EVERYBODY SIT DOWN, YOU USELESS LOT OF-" Ludwig roared, completely red in the face with frustration and rage. Putting a calming hand on Ludwig's shoulder, Alice cut him off before he could say anything else. "That is enough. We've heard enough of this today, it's late, and we're getting nowhere. For now, Elizabeta will be placed with Cabin 4 because she knows the majority of the people in it already. You are all dismissed, and we will speak of this again, another time. There were a few voices of complaint, but were quickly shut down by the noise of everybody grabbing papers and their things, and storming out of the room.

Eliza looked towards Lili, who had grabbed her wrist, nodding to her. "You're with me. Come on, we need to go find Lovina and Felicia, and head back to the cabin. Eliza found herself nodding faintly at Lili, but her mind was in a completely different place. What was wrong with these people?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, it's been over a month, and I've finally, finally updated. Sorry for the criminally-long wait. I hope this extra-long update can make due. As I predicted, School has hit me like a fuckin' train-wreck, and as an extra bonus, mental breakdowns have ensued as a direct result. Yippee. I will try to keep writing decent-quality chapters, but longer waits will most likely persist. *hides behind wall of books* Sorry. Writer's block has also slapped me in the face. I literally have the entire plot written out, I know exactly how this will play out and what will happen next, but writer's block has still hit me hard. Most of my motivation to write this is pretty much gone and has been replaced by stress, so I am really, very sorry if you have to wait long periods of time in-between chapters. Writing is an outlet for me that I absolutely love, but my time to do so is pretty much gone. *sighs* You probably don't want or need to hear me rant. But on to other, happier things!
> 
> Kudos to those of you who noticed the history references last chapter! Lili and Vasch's was their neutrality on Eliza's arrival at Sastra, and Eliza's was when she mentioned that she ran around like a nomad for awhile. For those of you who aren't as much of a European-history addict as I am, the exact reference of that statement was that the Magyars were a bit like the nomadic ancestors of modern-day Hungarians, so Hungary would have been a nomad for awhile during that time period. While I'm on the subject of the characters here, (okay, maybe slightly going off-topic) Ivan doesn't mean to badly. He just doesn't trust Elizabeta, and said a little too much while he was at it. And frankly, i'm not too sure that I would either if I was put in their situation. But like mentioned last chapter, they don't know her. For all they know, she could be a threat to their way of life. Trust just isn't something that comes easily in situations like these.
> 
> Also, I'm just curious here, would you rather more frequent updates that are a poorer quality, or would you rather have slower updates that are a better quality? I might be able to update more frequently with more chapters if I stop spending as much time proofreading/editing, but the total quality will decrease as a result, so I'm not going to resort to that because I loathe writing something and not preforming to the best of my ability. But if you'd rather quantity over quality, I'd go ahead and do that. *shrugs* Please let me know if this is the case.
> 
> And reviews! *jazz hands* Reviews honestly make my day, and knowing that people actually read my stuff and bother leaving 'em does wonders for my mood and motivation to write. So, please, review!
> 
> Translation Notes: I do not speak German. I used google translate for the few German words that I threw into some of the dialogue. Sorry if I butchered it!
> 
> Gottverdammt - German, Goddammit
> 
> Dummkopfs - German, Idiots
> 
> Next Chapter: Bad weather keeping everyone inside, followed by dinner and a rather uncomfortable discussion. Eliza has a talk with a certain realllll special snowflake of a character. *hint hint*
> 
> . . .
> 
> Characters: So, I know I mentioned a lot of characters in this chapter. And I've made a list of them and their cabins. When the guard squads start coming into play, I'll also include a list of which characters are in the squads, but that's only going to be relevant enough to need to include it in a few chapters. (lol this is going to be a long list)
> 
> Cabin 1: Amelia (Nyo! America), Natalya (Belarus), Mei (Taiwan), Lien (Vietnam)
> 
> Cabin 2: Madeline (Nyo! Canada), Katyusha (Ukraine), Michelle (Seychelles), Ellinor (Nyo! Ladonia)
> 
> Cabin 3: Alice (Nyo! England), Lene (Nyo! Norway), Emily (Nyo! Iceland), Wendy (Wy), Penny (Nyo! Sealand)
> 
> Cabin 4: Felicia (Nyo! Italy), Lovina (Nyo! Romano), Elizabeta (Hungary), Lili (Liechtenstein)
> 
> Cabin 5: Ivan (Russia), Toris (Lithuania), Eduard (Estonia), Raivis (Lativa)
> 
> Cabin 6: Francis (France), Antonio (Spain), Mathias (Denmark), Berwald (Sweden)
> 
> Cabin 7: Kiku (Japan), Yao (China), Leon (Hong Kong), Vasch (Switzerland)
> 
> Cabin 8: Ludwig (Germany), Gilbert (Prussia), Roderich (Austria), Tino (Finland)
> 
> . . .
> 
> If you do not see a certain character here, it's because they haven't come into play yet, or they're dead. The safest things to presume is that they're probably dead though, because there only are a select few that will come into play later. I'm sorry.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Well, there's the prologue! You'll find out who these people are... later. Hehe. They're pretty important to the backstory here. I hope that you liked this, and please, please feel free to leave a review telling me what you think. I love reading reviews. They make my day and give me life. Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you liked it! Ciao!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Thomas the Rhymer. Thomas the Rhymer is a ballad that is centuries older than I ever will be. I'm not entirely sure who the author is, because no source that I found would give me a clear answer, but if you do know, please tell me and I'll properly credit the author. Also, I do believe that Thomas the Rhymer is in the public domain.
> 
> Next Chapter: We're introduced to some of the main characters. (One in particular.) Blood, attacks, slight gore, fuckin' weird dreams, occasional name-calling ... this is going to be fun. *giggles slightly*


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